Giants news, 10/16: JPP plans to return to the field this week

Good morning New York Giants fans! Enjoy the win over the Cowboys? Well here are your updates for this Monday morning.

Jason Pierre-Paul intends to return this week

It has been reported for a week now that JPP plans on meeting with the team, but that hasn't come to fruition yet. Reports now indicate that not only does he plan to meet with the team, but he has the "intention of returning to the field" this week.

New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul plans to meet with the team this week with the intention of returning to the field, Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole reports.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano reports that meeting will likely be Tuesday, if it happens at all. Multiple Giants reporters had been told last week that Pierre-Paul intended to visit the Giants last Tuesday but that meeting never happened. Graziano adds that the Giants and Pierre-Paul have yet to discuss salary demands.

Reactions to the Giants win

Plenty of thing to talk about in a divisional victory over the Dallas Cowboys, so let's get all caught up with what the media had to say about the Giants.

Instant analysis: Giants defeat Cowboys, 27-20 | NY Daily News

Bad sign: The safest place in America on Sundays (or sometimes Thursdays or Mondays) is the pocket behind the offensive line of whatever team the Giants are playing. Their ability to generate any sort of a pass rush is startlingly bad. Who knows if Moore could've helped? It's not like they had much of a rush when he was out there. In this game, they again had none and Cowboys QB Matt Cassel had so long to throw his receivers could've run a route, come back and run a second one before he was in danger of being hit on most plays. … Meanwhile, on the opposite end of that spectrum, it continues to be amazing that Eli Manning is riding a consecutive games played streak of 174 because he's not getting much protection.

The Giants' quick-pass offense is bailing him out from taking a lot of abuse, but he sure seems to be under duress every time he drops back to throw. … This was never going to be easy against the Cowboys' offensive line, but the Giants gave up an absolutely ridiculous 233 rushing yards.

New York Giants Stand Tall in Critical Division Game vs. Dallas Cowboys | Patricia Traina

Besides having a chance to take sole possession of first place in the division pending the outcome of the Eagles’ game against Carolina, the Giants avoided a significant pitfall regarding their chances of winning the division by snapping the Cowboys’ five-game regular-season winning streak.

According to Paul Dottino of CBS New York, only two NFC East teams since 2007 have had more than two divisional losses in a season and still made it to the playoffs—the 2007 and 2011 Giants, who had three in each but still won the Super Bowl.

With their win, the 2015 Giants remain right in the thick of things despite imperfections such as their continued struggles on third down—their 27 percent conversion rate was their second-lowest total of the 2015 season—and in the red zone.

$17M steal! Electrifying Dwayne Harris saves Giants’ season | NY Post

Harris on a middle return took the kickoff at the goal line, burst through an opening around the 20-yard line and was gone, easily out-running kicker Dan Bailey to go the full 100 yards for his first career kickoff return for a touchdown.

"Every time I get the ball in my hands I’m thinking score,’’ said Harris, whose signing this past offseason (five years, $17 million) raised plenty of eyebrows. "I’m always thinking touchdown.

"We’ve been overdue for a long time, always one block away, one man away. Tonight it was blocked perfectly, anybody could have ran through the hole that was made.’’

Greg Hardy with a controversial press conference

There aren't too many fans of Greg Hardy as a person and he seems to be making no effort in trying to clean up his image as he rudely addresses the media following the loss to the Giants. The full video is provided in the link by NJ.com.

Greg Hardy got into an animated shouting match on the Dallas Cowboys sidelines with injured receiver Dez Bryant, who — and here's a delightful twist — was apparently trying to calm the defensive end down after he got in the face of special teams players.

But after the 27-20 Giants victory? Hardy was a tad more laconic. His press conference, if you can call it that, was a cross between agent Drew Rosenhaus standing on Terrell Owens' lawn and Marshawn Lynch at the Super Bowl media day.

In Man’s Game, Mark Herzlich Is Standing Up for Women | NY Times

In recent seasons, as the N.F.L. was shamed by multiple domestic violence arrests and the incendiary video of running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée in an elevator, Herzlich knew it was crucial that he work to change the culture of the locker room. "In the beginning, you’d call people out and tell them that something they said — locker room talk — wasn’t really funny," Herzlich said last week, sitting on the living room couch of his New Jersey home. "There would be jokes or something denigrating to women. It would be the kind of thing they would never say in front of a woman, but since it’s all men, they thought it was O.K."

Mark Herzlich during his college career at Boston College. He met his future wife, Danielle, there in 2009. It was not O.K. with Herzlich, and he had a specific reason.

Five years ago, his then-girlfriend and future wife, Danielle, sat him down and revealed something she had kept hidden. Danielle explained that she had been physically and emotionally abused by her father from the age of 9 until she was 15.